Grim
by Smeagolia
Summary: A young girl meets a strange black dog in an empty street... Halloween one-shot!


**A/N: Written for the Holiday Spirit: HALLOWEEN Boot Camp, chilling was the prompt.**

**Also for the A-Mazing challenge, the prompt certificate.**

**Enjoy!**

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A muggle girl clutched her little sister's hand tighter, glancing down the empty, rapidly darkening street. "You're holding my hand too hard, Anna! It hurrrrrts!" The little girl whined, pulling at the ear of the fluffy puppy-dog costume Anna had forced her into. Anna loosened her grip, still peering around. There was no one in sight. "Lets go home now, Helen." She sighed to her sister, letting her "save the strays," sign fall to the ground. A chilling wind blew, scattering autumn's leaves and making Anna shiver in her thin "I love my dog" t-shirt. An owl hooted ominously from some unseen perch, and the air suddenly went still when the bird's cry faded away. Anna thought she saw something move out of the corner of her eye, something big and black cowering in the shadows in one of the narrow alleys.

Helen tugged on her sister's hand, oblivious to Anna's quickening heart and rapid breath. "Okay, come on." Anna scooped up Helen in her arms and strided down the sidewalk, peeking back over her shoulder when she heard the telltale noise of padding feet following her. Something defiantly just moved behind that tree. _It was just a trick of the light_ Anna told herself, but she wasn't convinced.

A car whizzed passed, lifting the ends of Anna's hair and making the fur on Helen's costume dance and quiver. When the car turned a corner, Anna suddenly felt terribly alone. The air felt claustrophobically hot and still, and she couldn't shake the feeling that she and her sister were not the only beings out tonight. Anna could've sworn she heard a third someone – or something – draw in a breath.

She couldn't take it any longer. Why did she have to choose the night before Halloween, of all times, to do her community project for the animal shelter? She defiantly deserved that "most involved" certificate from school. Anna spun around, arms shaking with fear.

"W-who's there?" She called into the gloom. To her great surprise – and horror – a shape slunk into the light of the streetlamp. It was – a dog. Not the cute, cuddly kind at the animal shelter where Anna volunteered. This dog was huge, its head to Anna's chest. It was all cloaked in black, like a shadow of shadows. The only other color was its eyes. Big luminous yellow. Full of dark intelligence, like it knew something about her that she didn't, staring her down. But there was also something deep in them, a loneliness of someone who had given up, had accepted that they would be forever alone. In one word, it was grim. Helen whimpered and buried her face in Anna's chest.

"Please make it go away." The little girl mumbled, the fear ringing clear as a bell in her voice. Anna slowly lowered her sister down to the ground, never taking her eyes off the dog. "Run. She whispered to Helen. "Go to that little thrift shop just down the rode. Stay there until I come." Helen nodded, tears streaking her chubby little cheeks, and she tore off as fast as her short legs could carry her.

Anna was left alone to face the dog. Grim. Anna considered following her sister, but suddenly a wind picked up. Eerily, the dog's fur didn't rustle, not a hair twitched. It was like stone. Grim stone. Anna's shirt flapped slightly in the breeze. "I love my dog." She read quietly. Anna looked at the beast before her. She had to help it. Maybe she could take him to the animal shelter. Help him find a home possibly. Help him become less – grim.

Anna took a tentative step forward, the dog didn't move. She forced her foot to lift and step. She felt like she was in one of those movies, when some random mortal reaches out a finger to touch something out of this world. She watched her own arm stretching out, but it seemed the closer she got, the farther away the beast's head was. Grim. This whole situation: grim. After an eternity, Anna realized her hand was hovering directly over the animal's great head. If she just lowered her hand, she would touch the motionless fur.

She eyed the dog, waiting for it to lash out and chomp her head off, or at least her hand. But it remained still as a statue; yellow eyes piercing her wide frightened brown ones. Taking a deep breath, she let her hand fall and meet with the fur of the dog. Anna almost expected a bright ling to shoot out where they touched, and the world to explode in fire, like what might happen in a sci-fi movie. But the world remained still, wrapping Anna in a blanket of dark silence.

The dog's eyes slid slowly upwards to her arm and Anna bit her lip. It was the first movement the dog had made since it first made its appearance in the streetlight. The eerie yellow orbs, marked only by black pupils, turned from her arm back to her face. _Her it is, _Anna thought. _Here's the part where I'm violently murdered. _She could just imagine the headline of the news tomorrow. _Young girl killed by stray dog while doing community service. _The irony, here she was, out here to save the strays, then killed by one.

But to her great surprise and relief, the dog merely ducked its head, closing its yellow eyes. Anna jerked her hand up and she gasped when a whine escaped the dog's throat. Did he _want _her to pet him? She tentatively set her hand back on his head, stroking him awkwardly. The fur wasn't as course as it looked, it was silky and smooth. The dog opened it's eyes, looking up at her. Anna smiled involuntarily.

Then it was a blur. Everything happened in less than a second. The dog's eyes widened, and the pupils grew until the eyes were all black. The eyes softened and turned a chocolaty brown. The dogs back jerked upward, then relaxed. Anna staggered back as the whole animal seemed to shrink, the fur appearing to suck back into the skin. The dog yelped, its long tongue flopping out of its jaws, then curling back it.

As soon as it started, it stopped. Standing in the spot of the grim black beast, was a little scraggly puppy. Wide brown eyes, gazed at Anna, with, was that, gratitude deep in them? The little creature wagged its stubby little tail, licked her limp hand, then turned and ran down the alley.

All that was left was Anna, standing, watching. The grim was gone.


End file.
